Kevin Pietersen: sacked for being Kevin Pietersen
As the dust settles on a week bizarre even by the standards of English cricket, we must ask ourselves what it is that Kevin Pietersen has done wrong, writes Simon Barnes in the Times .
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
As the dust settles on a week bizarre even by the standards of English cricket, we must ask ourselves what it is that Kevin Pietersen has done wrong, writes Simon Barnes in the Times.
So what went wrong? It seems that people simply decided that, after all, Pietersen was the wrong sort of chap. Why? He expressed reservations about the coaching staff, but many a captain does that. Not everyone in the team was crazy about him, but show me a captain loved by all and I'll show you the Tewin Irregulars. Pietersen just went about things the wrong way. He complained about the head coach in a manner that wasn't quite right. He was unfamiliar with the local code and, well, I'm afraid we don't do things like that here, old boy. It seems that Pietersen has gone because he doesn't fit in, because he is very keen on his own way and because he is a bit of a maverick.
Naivety was behind the South African's demise as England captain, writes Angus Fraser, who looks at several issues Pietersen faced, in the Independent.
Issue: Pietersen was informed by email and does not fully understand why he is no longer England captain.
What Pietersen said: "I had lots of face-to-face meetings with Hugh Morris, Giles Clarke [ECB chairman] and David Collier [ECB chief executive] in India and they asked me to do a strategy plan on how I wanted to take the English cricket team forward. On New Year's Eve I sent the strategy email and said that I can't lead this team forward and take it to the West Indies if Peter Moores is coach. Hugh Morris phoned [a few days later] to tell me that they had had an emergency board meeting and they had accepted my resignation. I said on what basis had it been accepted? They had no answer. I was not told that Moores had been sacked. To lose a job of that importance over the phone is crushing. But it's done and it's time to move on."
Conclusion: Believing he was in a very strong position and it to be in the best interests of English cricket, Pietersen gave his employers an ultimatum. It did not go down very well with the ECB who, after five months of working closely with Pietersen, may have begun to question whether he was the right man for the job. The ECB realised the problem would not go away if they kept one of Pietersen and Moores in position. The cleanest and possibly best way forward was to remove both. Pietersen's ultimatum gave the ECB a way out with him. Comments made by senior players suggested there were issues surrounding Moores too, so he was sacked. The media maelstrom that erupted on the day Pietersen was returning from South Africa meant the ECB could not inform him face to face. Email or telephone conversation was the only way of informing him before he found out via the media.
Why appoint anyone at all as Peter Moores' successor? asks Richard Hobson in the Times.
The way forward should be bolder. England are actually heading towards it on the forthcoming tour to the West Indies. There will be no head coach and Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, will serve as an old-fashioned manager. Even without Moores, players will be able to draw upon a batting coach in Andy Flower, a fast-bowling coach (Ottis Gibson), fielding coach (Richard Halsall) and, for some of the time, Mushtaq Ahmed as spin coach. Mark Garaway, the analyst, will conjure all the statistics and replays on his laptop, while the medical team will be large enough to service a small town. Any base left uncovered by that lot is hard to spot.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo